Equity funds sitting on Rs 20,000-cr cash chest

Equity mutual funds are choosing to hold sizeable cash positions in view of current market uncertainties.

Data from Indsec Securities, based on January-end portfolios, show that average cash positions across equity funds were as high as 20 per cent, amounting to over Rs 20,000 crore across fund houses.

Mutual fund managers say that unprecedented volatility has prompted them to wait on the sidelines for buying opportunities. The proportion of cash to total equity assets has gone up from 10.1 to 20.5 per cent between January 2008 and now. Though the actual cash holdings have only increased from Rs 18,000 crore to Rs 20,000 crore, the contraction in equity fund assets (due to NAV declines and some outflows) has resulted in a larger proportion of cash. Cash includes cash and cash equivalents such as money market instruments and short-term debt instruments.

Among the larger asset management companies (AMCs) Reliance Mutual Fund and UTI Mutual Fund hold cash positions amounting to about 30 per cent of the equity assets while those such as SBI and HSBC Mutual hold about 20-22 per cent.

These cash holdings are not evenly spread across schemes.

Thematic funds, which typically focus on one sector (say, infrastructure) or theme (mid/small-cap stocks), account for a big portion of the cash holdings, while diversified equity funds have lower cash on their portfolios.

Reliance Diversified Power, Reliance Natural Resources, UTI Infrastructure and DSP BlackRock TIGER fund are some thematic funds which are high on cash and cash equivalents.

In some cases, cash positions (for funds such as Reliance or Birla Sun Life) are held against their exposure to derivatives in select schemes.

Cautious stance

Are equity fund managers holding high levels of cash anticipating pullouts from the funds? Fund houses deny that that is the case.

Equity funds saw relatively small net outflows (redemptions) of Rs 1,378 crore in the choppy October-December 2008 quarter. In January, there was Rs 338 crore of new outflows.

Fund managers who are high on cash appear to be taking the view that the worst isn’t over yet for the stock markets. Mutual funds have made net sales in stocks amounting to Rs 2,521 crore so far in 2009.

“We are holding higher cash positions on our funds given the uncertainty prevailing in the marketplace, where the risk appetite of investors is extremely low. Our diversified funds hold a 15-18 per cent allocation to cash and the thematic funds hold larger cash positions.”

Market uncertainties

Asked if the fund house is looking for a specific market level (say, a Sensex of 8,000 or 8,500) to deploy this cash, Mr Dongre replied that it is uncertainty rather than the prevailing market valuation, that is prompting the cautious stance. “If we see risk capital returning to the markets and the uncertainty receding, we will go ahead and deploy that cash, even if market levels are higher than they are currently,” he said.

At the other end of the spectrum, fund houses such as HDFC Mutual Fund and Franklin Templeton Mutual hold only about 7 per cent of their equity fund portfolios in cash.

These AMCs have consistently followed a practice of remaining more or less fully invested, irrespective of market swings.

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